We have been to Disney about a dozen times over the years and love it!!
We are researchers/planners and always had an itinerary but would be flexible. We have always done all of the "big" must do rides at the parks usually more than once with a large group and all ages.
However,we have not been since all of the changes have been made but hope to go again in the next year. Our last trip was just before the changes started with MB,FP+, etc. 
I tell my family all of the time that according to everything I am reading that "we don't know how to do Disney anymore!"
I'm not sure they believe me. So here's where my confusion comes in, I read on the boards about fast passes for Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Maelstrom(!?), Wishes, etc and I don't get it. We always ride all of these; again more than once, but have NEVER needed fp for those rides. Sure we may have had a short/moderate wait time but certainly wouldn't have used or needed a fp to ride and we have usually been at pretty high level crowd times. So are the lines that much longer? Are there fast passes for everything now even Jungle Cruise, etc? Someone please explain this to a seasoned Disney lover! I really don't understand fp for Wishes and parades. Is this just to get a better viewing spot?
I am having a really hard time wrapping my head around this but am willing to learn. I can understand getting fast passes ahead of time (months in advance) for some rides ToT, RNR come to mind. These are some of the ones we head to first as quickly as possible after rope drop but could someone who is a seasoned Disney person explain some of these things to me? I can see if you've never been before just accepting that this is how it is. I'm not debating good or bad, as I stated before we love Disney and are always looking forward to our next trip. I read and research on a regular basis. I love the idea of Magicbands (I want one!) and other changes. It's just very different and I want to understand it better before our next trip. Please help, do you plan very differently now and more importantly do you see less than before? Should we forget all we've ever known and come up with a new strategy? Do we still know how to do Disney?




I tell my family all of the time that according to everything I am reading that "we don't know how to do Disney anymore!"

I am having a really hard time wrapping my head around this but am willing to learn. I can understand getting fast passes ahead of time (months in advance) for some rides ToT, RNR come to mind. These are some of the ones we head to first as quickly as possible after rope drop but could someone who is a seasoned Disney person explain some of these things to me? I can see if you've never been before just accepting that this is how it is. I'm not debating good or bad, as I stated before we love Disney and are always looking forward to our next trip. I read and research on a regular basis. I love the idea of Magicbands (I want one!) and other changes. It's just very different and I want to understand it better before our next trip. Please help, do you plan very differently now and more importantly do you see less than before? Should we forget all we've ever known and come up with a new strategy? Do we still know how to do Disney?